If you are the registered owner of an E46, the law firm handling the class action settlement should have sent you a notification. These went out in July, I believe. If you recently purchased your car, the notification may have been sent to the prior owner. I can retrieve the documents and post a contact number for you here.

As was previously stated, you have a better chance of getting stuck by lightning than having this problem. Most of the cars that I've seen with this issue are manual transmissions and look like they've lived in a salt pit for the last 10 years. BMW has stated that this is not a defect and usually occurs with abuse of the vehicle. From my expierence and the cars we've seen, this seems to hold true. Every car we did the repair on was a total rat trap. That being said, go get your free inspection. It's free so why not.

From what I understand, I would tend to agree w/ the post from mose121. That said, if anyone wants to pursue an inspection, you can learn more from the claims administrator, Gilardi & Co., P.O. Box 808054, Petaluma, CA 94975-8054. Or, go to the website:www.E46subframeclassactionsettlement.com

We have seen this issue in appx. 4 cars. All were high mileage and usually have had a lack of maintenance. Our theory has nothing to do with salt or corrosion since we don't have that issue in Texas. What we suspect is happening is that the rear diff mount wears out causing a thumping in the rear of the car when shifting from park to drive or reverse or any other combo from a stop. Over time that thump, which is the torque from the driveshaft causing the diff to twist and not being insulated by the rear diffmount(remember it is blown) causes a tin canning process at the drivers side rear subframe mount. This tin canning repeatedly over many thousands of miles weakens, stresses and cracks the thin metal that the bushing is bolted too. We have not seen this in any manual gear box cars.
With all of this said, the car that I posted photos from had regular, thorough maintenance, and was not abused or tortured(know the owner of the car very well, older doctor and has had it maintained with us all of its life. It was on its second diff mount and had appx. 140k miles when we first took note of the crack.
We check all 3 series, E46, cars for this issue of the hundreds we see annually.

My theory is just that, a theory, there will be cars and scenerios that don't fit into this non-scientific theory. Once again this is just FYI and our observations and thoughts.

Interesting. We took our E46 in for the inspection (131k mi., regular maint.) and were told that the rear subframe was ok but that the rear diff. upper mount was cracked. I asked the tech if there was any connection to this and the rear subframe problem and he said no. Guess I didn't ask the question the right way .

A failed rear diff mount does not mean you will have a cracked unibody at the subframe mounts, in fact, if you replace them when/before they fail....when they have lost their hydrolic fluid, you will more than likely add to your odds of not having the issue. The failed diff mount theory is based on what happens when it fails and the fact that all 4 we have seen had failed diff mounts that had failed several years before and had been driven many thousands of miles in a failed state. With the exception of the one I posted photos of. As stated it was on its second and had only recently failed.

And like I said, our theory of this being the issue or part of the issue that causes the cracking, is just that a theory. Which means it is not a statement of fact...just an educated guess, not proven. So I would expect their will be some that dissagree in part or completely.

I took my car to get inspected... and it turned out to be OK by the dealer's techs. I know that they include a 1 year warranty on this, but how can they be so sure that they are correct??? All they did was put it on a lift and look around. That might be ok by BMW, but I plan on doing a more thorugh check for myself within the next week or so....... if I do find damaged that they dodnt find, how would I go about getting that fixed??

I was under the impression that BMW will only check your car once and if no damage is found then you are excluded from any further damage that happens within the specific time frame (now through September 9th 2010). I plan on having my indy look over the car a few times before I bring it into the dealer around July or August 2010.

my dealership isnt very helpful. when i brought up the inspection they just shrugged their shoulders and said "we havent heard anything from bmwna"..do you have to bring them that letter?

Seems to amaze me that some dealers are pretending to not know whats going on with this. Contact BMWNA 1-800-831-1117 and give them your last 7 of your vin and mention to them that your dealer claimed that they have no knowledge of this. This isn't a recall but all dealers should know by now that they are required to inspect all E46's with this issue. If you took the letter to your dealer they will probably assume that it hasn't been approved yet (which it already has) since the letter was dated back in July if I remember.

my dealership isnt very helpful. when i brought up the inspection they just shrugged their shoulders and said "we havent heard anything from bmwna"..do you have to bring them that letter?

There is a webiste for this issue. http://www.e46subframeclassactionsettlement.com/
There are attorneys appointed for any issues. They have plent of infromation and they were easy to get a hold of.
I was having some thumping sounds coming from downshifting or accelterating high in a low gear then letting off the gas. I have a 2000 382Ci (6/99 manufacture date), I took my car to a local shop that i trust and he had looked at it and showed me the crack i on my driver side rear support. I called BMW and they knew about the class action settlement and said that they will do a subframe inspection to see if there is anything wrong. They said if there is a crack that it can take 2-4 weeks to fix. The guys working in service department said that they would provide me any for of transportation and that it comes out of pocket for a rental. I set up a time to drop my car off to have them look at it and asked they gentleman who was helping me how many inspections they get. He informed me that they get this inspection all the time (it is a FREE inspection) and there are usually never any cracks. So i said ok that is good to know (i knew otherwise). After i dropped if off the same gentleman called me up and informed me that there was a crack. He asked me if i had transportation for the holidays (this was on Christmas Eve) and i informed him that i was still trying to firgure it out. He said they would provide me a Loaner while my car is getting fixed. (They loaned me a '09 535i w/ X-Drive, AMAZING CAR!!) When i went in to pick up my loaner he went through the time frame on what it would take to fix my car. Since my car had aftermarket rims a Service Rep would have to come out an verify that any aftermarket parts had no effect on the subframe cracking or fracturing (He only comes out once a month). Once he gives the go to order the replacement subframe it takes 2 weeks to receive. Then they have to take it to a body shop to have it install and that could take 3 weeks. I believe this is all worst case because it took my car in on 24 Dec and my car was ready for pick up 25 Jan.

Since my car had aftermarket rims a Service Rep would have to come out an verify that any aftermarket parts had no effect on the subframe cracking or fracturing

You lucked out on this one. I have heard stories of dealers excluding repairs because of aftermarket wheels and/or suspension components. Glad that you got to drive a 535 and that they were able to repair your car.